What happens when I stop taking my Spinning classes regularly...

Welcome back to the new and improved site everyone! I've missed sharing, and it's great to be blogging again--coming back refreshed and with new ideas/thoughts.

You'll read about it more later on, but in October I relocated to NH and thus, needed to not only find new facilities to teach in, but to workout in. I am happy to say that it has worked itself out over time, and I've found "new digs".

In the interim, though, of not teaching Spinning, I definitely got out of the habit of it as the scheduling of Spinning classes I could take conflicted with either work or another class I was interested in. And let me just say--even though I continued to workout regularly, taking a break from Spinning made it hard to hop back on the bike right into teaching again. I pinch-hit for a fellow Spinning instructor last minute, and being "off" teaching for three months, it was hard to remember all the details that an instructor must keep in mind. Introducing oneself, bike settings, hand positioning, safety rules, and lest we forget, the terrain of the ride itself. Thankfully, I used a playlist that I'd taught many times before so I knew what each song was going to bring. And, the class was very small so there was less pressure--in this new facility I am at, there is a 'stage' for the instructor, which is brand new to me. Thus, being an introvert, teaching at a new facility that has VERY high expectations for its instructors (hurrah, we like that right?), and being on an elevated stage were all enough to raise my heartrate, adding in the workout itself!

All in all, I thinki I did ok--I am officially on a sub list which means no complaints, but let me tell you, that first class didn't allow me to go on autopilot since I hadn't taught in so long. And I think it's good and bad. The good--it made me focus on the class more, and made me sound less like an automaton. The bad--sometimes I really had to dig deep for the right wording or phrasing (but then again, is it really bad to have to use brain power a little more? Ha ha!).

What about you folks out there? When you take a break, do you find it invigorating yet challenging to get back in the swing of it all? What do you miss? What do you learn about yourself as an instructor with time away?